History's Reminders
by Pokey1984
Summary: Finally settling in on Coruscant with her new friends, Nerinika must learn to let go of the past in order to rebuild her life. But will reminders of those long gone keep her from moving forward? [The whole gang is back as is my OC. Lots of randomness P
1. Chapter 1 New Beginnings

Hi, This is the sequal to my story: "History's Keeper." It is not necessary to have read that story to understand this one, but it would probably be helpful. Thanks go to REV042175 for the beta, however, all mistakes belong to me.

Oh, and please review. If you're too shy to dropa review, e-mail me. I don't bite. :)

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**_"History's Reminders"_**

Chapter 1

Jania and Jacen were sick. That's what Leia told Neri when the girl came home from class that afternoon. They had both caught a childhood illness that, although mostly harmless, could be quite uncomfortable. It was also highly contagious and there was no vaccine available. All they could do was let it run it's course.

"You should probably stay with Luke until they are better. I spoke to him already and he agreed." Leia handed Nerinika's bag out the partially opened door. "Here, I've already sterilized your things. It would be best if you didn't even come inside. If you haven't caught this already I would like to spare you."

Neri accepted the luggage gingerly. "Thank you, I think."

"Go on, we can talk over the comm later. Luke's waiting and he said he would have the spare room ready when you got there. Oh, Anakin will be staying with you too. He hasn't caught this yet either. It should only be for a few days." With that, the Chief of State slid the door shut.

"I think I've just been kicked out." Neri said to the empty corridor before slinging her pack over her shoulder and starting down the hall. She'd been staying with Leia and Han for the last two months and she had finally felt like calling the spacious apartment home.

That wasn't an easy thing for her. Sixty years ago she had been in a terrible accident that left her orphaned and on the brink of death. An experimental suspended animation technique had saved her but, thanks to her close association with the Jedi, she'd been hidden away at the start of the purges to preserve her life. Finally found after a lifetime locked away in a basement, the instructions left with her were to contact the Temple. In the New Republic, that meant Jedi Master Luke Skywalker.

Fourteen year old Nerinika quickly became friends with Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa-Solo, who had been contacted by the scientists to be with her when she woke. Both were sympathetic to the girl's plight and intrigued by her unique knowledge of a time that even history had forgotten The Chief of State and her brother had taken the girl in and were helping her find a place in the galaxy.

Only days after arriving home to Coruscant Nerinika and her new friends had fallen into a madman's plot for revenge and were drugged and kidnaped as a result. They had awoken in a sealed room inside the depths of the old Jedi Temple, which had been converted into the Imperial Palace after the Purges. Fortunately, their kidnapper hadn't planned on Nerinika's resourcefulness or her knowledge of the temple and they were able to escape. Unfortunately no traces could be found of the kidnapper, who remained at large.

Now, Neri was finally getting her life back on track. She'd started attending classes on Coruscant and was busy filling Luke in on what she knew of Jedi history. Walking down the hall toward the lifts, her mind drifted to the history lessons she'd attended that day.

While she was far ahead of her age mates in most academic areas, having spent much of her time growing up in the Temple Library, Neri knew almost nothing of recent history. She'd been enrolled in a history course that claimed to focus on the last one hundred years of Galactic history. The instructor had started with the present day and worked backward and was now approaching where Nerinika's knowledge was. Unfortunately, the instructor knew very little of this time period. What facts hadn't been erased entirely from the records had been distorted intentionally by both the Jedi and Emperor Palpatine in an attempt to hide events and sway public opinion.

Nerinika rode the lift down to another floor and exited even more frustrated. She marched toward Luke's apartment, which was thankfully near the lift, and rang the chime. She'd only rarely been to the Jedi's apartment. He usually went to Leia's or they all went out somewhere, so her prints weren't programmed into the plate. The response was a recording of Luke's voice saying, "It's open Neri, come on in."

She entered to the sound of dishes clanging together in the kitchen and little Anakin talking very loudly. "Luke? I'm here. Leia told me what was going on."

"I'm in the kitchen," the Jedi called out. Neri dropped her bag on the floor and followed the noises coming from the other room, curiosity out weighing frustration for the moment.

Luke was apparently trying to cook dinner. He did not seem to be doing a good job of it. "What's happening?"

The Jedi dropped the lid on a pot that had flames licking over the top. He turned to her nonchalantly.

"Not a lot, I'm just cooking dinner." Smoke began pouring out of the pan and Neri picked it up by the long handle and doused the flames in the sink. She dropped the pan and jumped up to sit on the edge of the counter. She didn't say a word.

"I thought I would try a new recipe today." Anakin giggled from his space in the corner. He was sitting in a position similar to Neri's.

"Uncle Luke spilled the soup and it caught fire. Then the pan... Cphht urgphh ahhh." Luke's hand found its way over the boy's mouth and the rest of the story turned to incomprehensible mumbles.

"I think we should order in tonight," Luke said and Neri grinned.

"If the choice is whatever is in that pot, I agree. Maybe you should ask Han for some cooking lessons. He's a good cook."

Luke pretended to pout and Neri grinned at him again. The Jedi dumped more utensils in the sink and switched off the warmer. "How was class today?"

Her frustration returned full force at the reminder. "Horrible. The instructor is a moron."

"That's not very nice Neri." He said for Anakin's benefit.

She sighed and said, "No it's not. I'm sorry. I'm just so frustrated."

"I take it the course has made its way to a time frame you are familiar with?"

"Not only that, they don't know anything. The things they think they know are so far wrong..." She jumped off the counter and began to pace. "She said the Corbion insurrection was settled when the resistance bombed the main palace. That's not true. Yes, they bombed the palace, but there was no one there. It was an accident. The aircraft carrying the bombs crash landed on the palace. The leaders were already signing the treaty when it happened. The bombs were on their way to be dismantled. Master Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan mediated that one."

"What did the instructor say when you told her this?" Luke had finished piling the sink full and was wiping off a counter.

"She accused me of making up stories. She said the history books were never wrong and how could I know what happened anyway." Neri turned her back to the wall and fell against it heavily. "I wanted to tell her the truth, but she wouldn't have believed me anyway."

"You are probably right," her friend conceded. "It sounds like you handled the situation well, though."

"Yeah, very maturely. I sat down and let everyone laugh at me." She let her head thunk against the wall and rolled her eyes shut. "It's just so _hard_."

Luke handed the cloth to Anakin who started wiping down everything he could reach. The Jedi wrapped one arm around Neri's shoulders. "I know it's tough. It's hard when you know stuff and can't tell people why. Things will get easier though, it just takes time."

Intrigued, Neri raised her head and focused her eyes on her friend. "That sounds like a lesson that was learned from experience."

"You know my story. When I was growing up I frequently knew things I shouldn't have known. When someone asked me why or how, all I could do was shrug and say 'I don't know.' Now I realize that it was the Force, but not then."

"I don't know what I would have done without Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan to help me when I was little," Neri confessed. "That sort of thing hardly ever happens to me anymore, but it scared me sometimes when I was little."

Luke gave her shoulders a squeeze and pulled her up from the wall. "Come on, I don't know about you but I'm starving. Let's order some dinner."

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After the meal, Neri headed to her new room to settle in. Luke had tossed her luggage in before they ate, but Neri hadn't been inside yet. The entire apartment would take some getting used to. The Solo's apartment had knick-knacks and children's toys everywhere. There were dents in the walls and stains of the floors. Those rooms felt like someone's home. Luke's apartment had none of those things. The walls and floor were clean and aside from some nondescript artwork they were bare. The furniture was simple but far too clean. This place felt like a museum. Neri was afraid to relax for fear she'd get something dirty.

Not that Luke was a particularly clean person. He wasn't messy, how messy could one person be? But he did make his fair share of messes, as evidenced by the disaster area the kitchen had become. Still, the entire place felt clean and new, the kind of place where you are extra careful not to get anything dirty; Neri didn't like it much.

She walked slowly down the hall, trying to learn the way well enough so she wouldn't turn into the wrong room by mistake. Luck was with her and her room was the first one in the hallway. She was disappointed when the door slid open, however. Aside from a bed, a desk and a chair, the room was bare.

The bed had been made with fresh linens, though and the desk held a brief welcome home note from Luke. Neri picked up her bag from the floor and began to unpack her clothes. Near the middle of the bag she found her old droid LU-43 and gleefully activated him. The little droid lifted on its repulsors and hovered slowly around her head, orienting itself.

"Hi Ellyoo. We're in Luke's apartment for a while. Jania and Jacen are sick and Leia didn't want us to catch it too so Anakin and I are staying with Luke."

The droid beeped a question at her and Neri looked around thoughtfully. "I don't see why you can't explore a little. You'd certainly liven things up and there's no Jania to take you apart here. Just stay out of Anakin's reach, he's as bad as his sister about taking things apart."

Ellyoo beeped in query and Neri giggled. "No, Luke won't mind you running around. He's always got Artoo running around. He understands, trust me."

Ellyoo warbled and Neri gave him a little shove toward the door. "Go on, if you're going." She understood his trepidation. She'd run into a lot of people who disliked her friend running about on his own. Elyoo had been her friend for years and she often forgot that many people just saw him as a tool. The little droid hovered momentarily, then extended a manipulator arm in front of the sensor plate and rushed out the still opening door.

Neri laughed and walked over to shut the door, then flopped on her bed. The mattress was soft and springy and she bounced several times before settling. Her mother's trinket box was poking out of her bag and she reached down to retrieve it.

Dragging a chain out from under her shirt, she used the gold key that dangled from it to unfasten the lock. Opening the lid, she closed her eyes and inhaled the faint forest scent that wafted out. Even after fifty years, it still smelled like new wood. Inside were a dozen things she had collected. A few notes from her parents and Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, her mothers ring, the broken fragments of crystal and a stack of holochips all beckoned her with sweet and bittersweet memories. She lifted the small stack of datachips out of the box and laid it on the bed.

One by one she activated the chips, displaying their holographic images before arranging them around the box. One flickered slightly as its power cell neared depletion and she snatched it up and switched it off. Quickly, she plugged it in to recharge. The data wouldn't fade while the power cell was drained, but she couldn't bear the thought of being without any of the images for even a short period of time. They were all she had left, besides her memories.

The fading image was the only one that she didn't remember the exact moment it was taken. This one was of her mother. A slender woman with long brown hair in a plait down her back, wearing brown Jedi robes. She was laughing at something just out of sight, her bright blue eyes sparkled and her head was thrown back in glee. She had just turned twenty.

Neri switched off the image and set it aside. The one she picked up next showed herself, as a child. Barely three years old, she was nestled in the arms of a large man wearing a white tunic. Her arms were wrapped around his neck as he smiled at her timidity. Uncle Qui-Gon had just brought her back to the temple and she was frightened enough that she refused to leave his side. His apprentice had captured the image.

A half dozen more were held fondly, then switched off and placed back in the box. After a moment, she gathered everything together and closed the clasp on the box. It would stay locked until she opened it again, as the key was genetically coded to her touch alone. She supposed her mother would also be able to operate the lock, but that wasn't likely to happen.

Having spent as much time as she could handle in the past, Neri dropped her knapsack on the bed with a thunk and began sorting the contents. Clothes - all clean thanks to Leia - went in the dresser drawers. Her handful of datapads were stacked on the small desk. Her little box was reverently placed on shelf above the desk. A few other trinkets were scattered about the room, then the sack was empty. Her entire life took only ten minutes to unpack.

Ordinarily the day would have ended in the common room playing a game of some kind with Anakin and the twins. Now, she was unsure what to do with herself. Finally, she found her school files in the pile of datapads and began working on her assignments. As irritating as the class may be, It would be required for her to get into a standard school.

In the old days, she would have received a certificate from the Temple instead of having to go through the public schools. She had surpassed her classmates at a young age thanks to the tutelage of her many Jedi friends. Eventually, her parents had agreed that the public classes were a waste of time and they had allowed her to study at the Temple instead. Now, even if she had obtained the certificate, it would no longer be worth anything.

Neri sighed wistfully and easily wrote out the answer to the essay question that had been posed to the class. After reading back over her work, she quickly deleted the entire piece. She'd written it from her own memory, not from the book. According to the lessons, her answer was wrong. Groaning in frustration, she diligently found her own class notes and settled in for a long night.

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Luke had finally put Anakin to bed and took the opportunity to check on his other charge. He hadn't seen Nerinika since just after dinner, thanks to Anakin's bath. Now, he ventured from the back of the apartment to search for her. The door to her room was closed and he hesitated to knock on it. If she was in there she probably didn't want to be disturbed. Instead, he quickly searched the rest of the apartment. It really wasn't that large and he soon determined that she must be in her room.

In his travels, however, he discovered he had a third boarder. The little droid LU-43 was snooping around his cupboards when he entered the kitchen.

"Hello there," he greeted the little droid. It ducked out of the cupboard and floated up to examine his face. "I had wondered when I was going to see you again."

The little droid beeped warily and Luke laughed. "Of course I'm not upset. If I didn't want you around I would have told Neri. You're welcome to do whatever you like, though I would recommend staying inside the apartment unless Nerinika is with you."

The droid buzzed around the Jedi's head a few times, then chimed happily. "You like to be called Ellyoo, right?" An affirmative beep. "Is Neri in her room?"

The droid hesitated, then offered a noncommittal sound. With a cheery noise, it flew out the doorway and straight for the controls to the girl's door. Before Luke could say a word, Ellyoo had the door open and was warbling happily.

"I didn't mean go find her!" Luke called, walking to the doorway. He paused there, not sure if she would mind him being in her room.

Neri laughed, turning away from her desk, which was strewn with datapads. She patted the little droid, who cooed happily. "Ellyoo is a library droid. His primary function is to help people find the thing they needed as quickly as possible. He doesn't always understand the difference between a question and a request."

Luke smiled gently. "Well, I'm still sorry to disturb you."

She shook her head. "It's alright, I was finished anyway."

A silence followed during which Luke continued to stand in the doorway and Neri sat at her desk, half turned around in her chair. Neither one looked directly at the other. For some reason both felt suddenly uncomfortable.

"I only wanted to make sure you were settling in," Luke stepped inside the room and glanced around. "It looks like you are..."

Neri offered him a one-shouldered shrug. "I don't have much settling to do. I guess I've never been one to collect a lot of stuff. I suppose that's a good thing. If I had collected much, I wouldn't have it now anyway."

Another bout of silence followed this statement. It seemed surprising that Neri was comfortable enough with her experience to speak so casually about it. After all, less than a month ago she had been with her family in a world that made sense. Now she was stuck here, her entire life gone. At least when his world had been turned upside down he'd had _something_ familiar to fall back on.

"Well, if you need anything, I'm just down the hall. I put Anakin to bed, you don't have any classes tomorrow, right?"

"Nope. I've got a few days free."

"They how would you like to accompany me to the Imperial Palace. We're trying to restore it an we could use your advice."

She looked at him, puzzled. "Why would I know anything about the Imperial Palace? I slept through that, remember?"

Luke smiled at her sadly. "We are restoring it to what it was _before_ it was the Imperial Palace and you are the only person we have been able to find who saw it before."

"Me?" She thought it over, but something wasn't quite connecting. The answer was obvious, however, and she shuddered at the thought. Her voice was barely a whisper when she said, "The Temple..."

He nodded mutely. "I know it will be difficult for you, but you are the only person who can help."

Her imagination conjured up a million horrible things that she might find if she volunteered herself for this, but she knew she would have to face it sooner or later. "Okay, I'll do it."


	2. Chapter 2 Letting Go

It's me again, just a few things to note before I move on to the story. First, I have replaced the first chapter of this story and will be going over History's Keeper again as well. Thanks to some fabulous input and a positively huge stack of relevent books that Mike gave me, I've discovered an error with my timeline. It's a minor thing, but Nerinika was actually in coldsleep for just over sixty years, as opposed to the forty I originally said. This will have little or no impact on the plot because it was just a counting mistake; I'm just going to fix it for continuity's sake only.

Second, impossibly huge amounts of thanks have to go out to several people for their help in researching the Jedi Temple. Thanks to Scott Ferguson for his layout and design themes. Also for his assistance in figuing out the colors. Thanks go to REV042175 and SSG Michael B Jackson for thier many brainstorming sessions with me. The both of them have helped more than I can say by just rambling on and throwing out the most amazing suggestions. Thanks, guys! I would also like to say thanks to all the nice people on the boards at TF.N who helped fill in my historical blanks.

As usual, a big thank you to **REV042715** who beta read this chapter and, coincidentally, was my only review for the last chapter.

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**_"History's Reminders"_**

Chapter 2

Wandering through the halls of the Temple was once an awe inspiring event for most beings in the galaxy. Even those with no Force sense felt strong emotions kinds when venturing within these walls. Though most Jedi were raised from birth in this location and quickly became conditioned to this phenomenon, even the most wizened Masters were occasionally awed.

Neri never learned whether this concentrated energy was the result of so many force sensitive beings having spent so much time in this location for so long; or, if this culmination of the Force was the reason the Temple had been built where it had. There was a good chance that she would never know and she didn't care now.

Upon arriving at the Temple, the girl had, at first, been devastated all over again. She had yet to see the outside and upper levels that were now referred to as the Imperial Palace. Now, approaching in an air car, she was treated to a spectacular view and could feel her heart breaking. In her time, the Temple had been spectacular. The main building was slightly pyramidal in shape and was dwarfed by huge spires. Although they were tiny in comparison to the monoliths on other parts of the planet, they were magnificent. When touched by the sun, the entire structure shone with golden brilliance. After dark, the oddly arranged building seemed to glow from within the very stones with which it had been built.

Now, the grace and beauty that so many had enjoyed was twisted into a horrific image. The elegantly shaped spires were spiked with gun turrets and sensor arrays while the gracefully angled sides of the main building were spotted with communication dishes and antennae. The entire visible portion of the structure had been either painted or charred to a mottled black that made it appear that the building was slowly being consumed by a gigantic fungus.

Neri turned her face away from the window and Luke was not the only one to notice her pain. The head of the restoration committee was with them and to say the young red head was observant would be a terrible understatement. The woman was too young to know much about any kind of history, being closer to Nerinika's age than the Jedi's. However, she was quite astute when it came to seeing where things had been altered. Even the most thorough remodeling job left behind evidence of what had been and Paria Trace could spot such a thing from orbit.

Now she was using those excellent powers of observation on Neri. "Don't worry, honey. With your help, we can fix it, I promise." She was slowly bringing her sympathetic tone around to an enthusiastic one, a trick most often used on young children but frequently effective on adults as well. "I never saw it before. I have never even seen a holo of it, but if this building could talk it would be screaming. I've never seen an inanimate object that looked like it was in pain. Before now, I never even knew it was possible."

Luke nodded at her knowingly and laid one arm protectively about Neri's shoulders. "Aptly put, Miss Trace." Paria was not Force sensitive, but she was the closest thing to a psychic that the Jedi had ever encountered. He'd known of a few races that used the force in imitation such power, but he'd never heard of this power actually existing outside of fiction.

They were all sitting in the back of a large aircar, Luke and Neri facing forward while Paria sat in the rear facing seat and one of her staff flew the light craft. The car circled the building once, as per the pilot's earlier instructions, and landed on a platform attached to the main building. Neri was pleased to note that this one was part of the original structure, though not an entrance she had ever used. No one spoke again until they were all standing on the platform.

Neri stepped forward and sniffed the air. She made a face and moved closer to the building before sampling the air again. Her face this time was a mask of sadness and anger. She stepped closer to the side of the building and then towards the railing of the platform. Reaching over the side, she was able to touch the outside surface of the building. Her hand came back coated with a back substance that was both sticky and slippery at the same time. As she pulled her hand toward her nose, the emanating smell nearly caused her to vomit. The stench was somewhere between bile, tar, ash, and burned sugar and she wasn't willing to examine it closer.

Paria held out a damp cloth to the girl who took it gratefully and began scrubbing the substance off her fingers as if it were dissolving her skin. At Luke's questioning glance, she said, "I made the mistake of touching it when I got here. We've done some tests on it but so far we don't know what it is. We can take it off, but until now we weren't sure if we should or not."

"And you know now?"

Paria smiled and gestured toward Neri, who was still desperately scrubbing at her now clean hands. "Her silence speaks volumes."

Luke had to admit that Neri's reaction would have made up his mind if the smell hadn't already. "Neri? Are you ready to continue?"

She looked up as if startled. "What did you say?"

He smiled kindly at her, wondering if this was how it felt to have children. The thought caught him so off guard, he forgot his own question. Instead, he asked, "What do you think?"

She pointed toward the offending wall with the rag she was still holding. "That, should be the first thing to go!"

"I had already decided that." Paria said. "Shall we continue inside?"

Luke held his arm out to Neri as if to escort her. She accepted both the arm and the unspoken offer of support as they continued inside.

Their pilot, a human male even younger than Paria named Puck, was much more talkative once inside. Though Neri admitted she had never been in this particular corridor, she still winced visibly when they entered. Though it could not compete with the nightmare outside, the interior was almost as horrifying.

This particular hall was painted steel grey with a pair of garishly red stripes running down the hall at nearly waist height. While Puck was explaining the process they were using to determine what the original color of the wall had been, Neri wandered slowly down the hall, flanked by Luke and trailed by Puck and Paria.

"...we can't be sure, but we think this hallway was a lighter color, a brown or a tan-" Puck's commentary was cut off by Nerinika's strained voice.

"It was light-brown almost a caramel with overtones of gold and just the faintest traces of blue and green. The floor was inlayed with bits of colored stone in similar colors but with cream the primary hue. The ceiling was blue and white, painted to look like a sky with clouds." She had spoken without looking at any of the others, now she turned to Luke. "This used to lead almost exclusively to the council chambers. The corridor was put in place several hundred years ago to provide a path to the council room that did not require allowing intruders into the temple itself."

"I would think a building full of Jedi would find such precautions unnecessary. Who would think of attacking such a place? Surely they would know they wouldn't succeed against so many trained warriors?" Before Luke could even begin to set Paria straight, Neri had turned on the woman.

"You have some strange conceptions, Miss Trace. Please keep in mind, however invincible Jedi may seem to you, they all started out as helpless children. This place was not a fortress, but rather an institution of learning and a refuge of peace." The girls voice was mournful and so far it had dropped in volume with each word. She paused and ran one hand along the wall in an almost longing gesture. "Only the very desperate would appeal to the council in person. Would you expose so many young people to such feelings of rage as would be found when this person was refused?" Her voice rose in anger now. "Would you risk the lives of innocent babes when the disappointed party decided to take revenge?" Neri turned her back on the woman and stormed toward the end of the hall. She waited near the lifts for the rest of the group to catch up.

When she caught up to the girl, Paria splayed one hand at her throat and said, "My apologies, Nerinika."

The sign was archaic and was meant to convey apologies. Nerinika apparently understood. After a deep breath she felt composed enough to answer, "I owe you the apology. Your mistake was mis-information only and my response was out of line."

After exchanging strained smiles, Neri turned to her. "I say we start at the top and work our way down. What do you think?"

The lift door opened as if on cue and Paria bowed to the girl. "After you."

'At the top,' to Neri, meant the council chambers. The room was one of the most important in the temple, as well as being located above the apex of the pyramid. It was not the highest point on Coruscant, or even the highest point in the Temple, but it was definitely the top. Waiting on the lift to reach the uppermost level, Neri wrinkled her nose in disgust. "As much as I despise un-colors like beige, it's still a better color than red on black."

Paria laughed and Puck looked at her oddly. "Why do you consider beige a... how did you put it, an un-color?"

"Colors are meant to be seen. Beige, cream, off-white, they are all designed to have as little impact as possible. I consider them un-colors because they are meant to _not_ be seen. Actually, the lifts were mostly cream with color codes to tell you where it went." She ran one hand down the wall and sighed. "Most of the temple was done in warm, earthy tones. Yellows and golds, browns and reds. Those types of colors. I don't think I've ever seen any black here before."

Luke, who had only been here a couple of times before himself, was reeling slightly from the conflicting feelings he received. The force was unbalanced in this building and whirled, not with a turbulent wave, but slow and steady roll. The most apparent feeling was the Emperor's dark overlay, but underneath that he could feel a warmer, more solid presence. Before he could say anything about it to Neri, they had reached their destination and the lift doors slid open.

They stepped off the lift and into a sort of antechamber. Before them were goliath sized doors with a shiny black finish. The room was done in shades of black and grey. The silver and red accents gruesomely reminded Neri of blood spatter. The whole design made one feel as if they were on the way to their own execution. Neri set her jaw in a determined line and walked confidently toward the huge black doors.

Though her anguish left her arms and legs quivering, she laid her palms flat against the heavy barriers and pushed. When the door shifted slightly but did not move, Neri rapped on the material and her face lit with a wry grin. "The Emperor must have been a very vain person. As much as he must have wanted to change this building to suit his own needs, even he couldn't demolish real wood doors of this size."

Puck stepped up and rapped on the door incredulously. "Real wood? No way, these are huge!"

Neri nodded. "Real wood. I have no idea where it came from, but each door is one solid piece of wood. You should be able to remove the black relatively easily and refinish the wood underneath."

Paria nodded and Puck jotted a note on his datapad. Luke gestured toward the door. "Shall we?"

In better spirits than a few moments before, Neri stepped up with him and together they pushed the huge doors open. Neri stared numbly at what she now realized had become the Emperor's throne room. Suddenly furious, she stomped to the center of the room and turned in a circle while muttering under her breath. Luke could only catch bits and pieces but he was certain he heard her say, "...that arrogant, impudent, irreverent, piece of slime..."

The throne room was decorated much the same as the antechamber. The main difference was several sheets of steel that covered most of the walls. Neri walked over to one of them and examined it closely. She could see no visible way to shift it, since it was bolted to the wall. Looking around the room again, she noticed a few long strips of some kind of metal near the throne that had so caught her attention a moment ago. Not even wondering where such a convenient tool had come from, she snatched up one of them and carried it to the sheet she had been examining a moment ago.

"We don't know what those are yet..." Paria tried to stop Neri from prying at the metal, but Luke's hand on her arm forestalled any further comment. Not entirely sure what either of them were doing, Luke grabbed another metal strip and joined Neri. It only took moments for them to feel the metal give and with a sudden crack the lower portion popped loose from the wall and bright white light streamed around it.

Puck threw up a hand to shield his face and cried out involuntarily, anticipating a disaster that never came. Before he knew what was happening, Neri had thrown down her makeshift pry bar and was pulling at the edge of the metal. With a tortured sound, the metal gave and ripped off the bolts that had been holding it in place. As one, Neri and Luke threw the sheet to the floor between them. Together they stepped onto the sheet of metal and turned to face the welcome sunlight that streamed in through the window they had uncovered.

Looking out over Coruscant, Neri felt an enormous sense of satisfaction. Even with the metal off the plastisteel of the window kept any air from blowing through, but somehow Neri still felt as if she could breathe easier now that real sunlight was entering the room again. It was as if the room itself had been suffocating and she had just given it oxygen.

Puck was looking around the room with a puzzled expression. The sudden rush of Force energy that had coursed throughout the room was so strong even the non-sensitives had felt it. Paria joined Luke and Neri at the window. "What just happened?"

"I'm not sure," Luke told her. "It's as if the entire building is alive. It feels as if it is alive and fighting off an infection."

Neri, still staring out the window, said, "Yes, and sunlight works miracles for infected wounds. It feels better in here already."

* * *

After several more minutes, Neri realized the afternoon was wearing away and she stepped back from the window. At the same moment, Luke and Paria stepped off the sheet of metal, causing it to slide on the well-polished floor. Before anyone could react, Neri had fallen backward into the window and they heard a loud, wet, thunk. For one horrifying moment, Neri lay perfectly still. Her chest didn't rise, her eyes stayed closed, and Luke thought the Emperor had taken one final life. For one terrifying instant, Luke wondered if his own heart had stopped the same second Nerinika's had. 

Despite the dire predictions his racing mind made, the Force told him that both hearts still beat and - before another moment could pass - Neri took a violently deep, shuddering breath. Luke released the breath he'd been holding since she began to slip and rushed to her side before she could even open her eyes.

"Are you all right?" He asked when she tried to focus on him. Still fighting for breath, she nodded and closed her eyes for a moment. Opening them again, she started to push her prone body up into a sitting position with Luke's help. Gratefully, the Jedi Master realized the girl was breathing easier now that she was upright. She raised one hand to the back of her head and winced as she found the spot she'd hit against the plastisteel. It was tender, but not broken, and she sighed with relief.

"I'm fine; I just got the breath knocked out of me. I'll have a bump on my head tonight, but it's nothing serious."

Still irrationally worried, Luke asked, "Are you sure? It's no trouble to summon a medic."

Neri's laugh was weak, but a welcome sound to her worried friend. "No, I'm fine, really." Attempting to stand, she got to her knees and stopped. Crawling to the edge of the sheet metal, she looked down and examined the floor.

The black tiles had been chipped when she dropped the panel originally and a golden yellow was showing through. Neri ran one finger over the break and, on an impulse, slid her fingernail under the edge. The entire tile was easily lifted off, revealing a six inch square colored with gold and yellow. With three pairs of eyes watching in amazement, she lifted another tile, and another, revealing more of the one of a kind pattern that she remembered so well. In her glee, she dropped one of the black tiles from about six inches and watched it crumble. Looking up at her companions, Neri grinned broadly as she crumbled another tile between her fingers.

"Well, don't just stand there, help me!" Luke grinned in response as her voice broke into his shocked stupor. He dropped to his knees and began lifting the tiles and tossing them aside. Puck joined them and so did Paria after she made a quick call to one of her colleagues. Soon they would have more help. In twenty minutes they had broken loose every black tile but with no place to put them, the brittle pieces were still lying in piles on the floor. In twenty two minutes Paria's help arrived with cleaning supplies.

While two of the new arrivals started in on the floor with large brooms, the other four took power tools to the sheet metal on the walls. After having been in the room only an hour, Neri had restored much of it's former splendor. There was still a great deal to be done, but with sunlight streaming in through the windows and setting the beautifully patterned floor ablaze, Luke could understand Neri's shock at everything she'd seen so far.

The Jedi tore his eyes off the scene to pay attention to what Paria was saying.

"...I don't know why, but it just seemed wrong to get droids to do this job. It would have taken longer to get them, to be sure, but that's not the reason they're not here.."

Neri joined the conversation, "I'm glad you didn't. Most of the temple was always cleaned either by droids or by apprentices, save two places. The High Council chamber, and the Hall of Remembrance. Droids never entered either place." Seeing the questions in the older woman's face, Neri said, irritated, "It's called reverence, look it up."

The woman again splayed her hand at her throat and before the older woman could say anything, Neri said, "I apologize, Miss Trace. I think the stress is getting to me."

"That, or the head injury." Luke said, not even bothering to suppress his smile.

Neri frowned at him. It wasn't that she didn't appreciate the humor, it was just a little too familiar. "You know, you sound just like Obi-Wan sometimes." It was a statement, not a question and Luke took it as a compliment.

As they spoke, they had walked out of the Throne room/Council Chamber into the main waiting room.

Paria said to Neri, "I understand your frustration. I can only imagine how difficult this must be for you. This is hard for me to bear and I have no connection to this place. Please, take no offence when I speak without thinking first, it is a bad habit of mine."

Neri shook her head sadly. "It's not even the damage as much as the memories. I keep seeing people I remember from less than a month ago running or laughing, and then I remember that they haven't even been alive for decades." She pressed one hand against the doorframe and shut her eyes against the tears that were forming. "I've known people who died before, but it's just different somehow, knowing that they died before most of the people I know now were even born."

Paria had been let into their little loop before they had come here. She had needed to know in advance how Neri knew the things she did. Now, though, she was at a loss.

Luke wasn't. He stepped forward and wrapped an arm around the girl, who finally gave in and broke down into sobs. "It's okay, Nerinika." He whispered into her hair as she buried her face in his shirt. With both arms around her, Luke gently allowed them both to fall to the floor.

"It's not okay!" Neri all but screamed. Her grief strained voice turned the scream into a strained whisper. "It can't be okay. They're all gone and I'm here. How is that okay?"

Luke ran his fingers through her hair in what he hoped would be a soothing rhythm. "It was the will of the Force. These things happen."

"They're all gone and I'm here... I'm not strong enough" Neri sobbed harder, her breath rasping out of her throat with such a horrible sound Luke thought his own throat would ache in sympathy. He could now feel Neri's tears soaking through his shirt, but he ignored it.

How could this child bring such emotions through him, Luke wondered with a tiny part of his attention. Most of his thoughts were centered on the girl, but he spared enough for this thought. "Not strong enough for what?"

Luke couldn't quite make out what she said next. She was chanting something rhythmically and he leaned even closer to her face in an attempt to make it out. "...there is no death, there is the Force."

Luke stopped listening. Only a few times since he had left Tatooine had he wavered in his decision to become a Jedi. Only on very rare occasions over the last six years had he ever questioned the things he had been taught. Never, not even when Ben had lied to him, had he ever felt any sort of real anger or hatred toward his teachers. Now, however, he could almost understand why his own father had hated the Jedi enough to turn - almost.

This child, sobbing in his lap, was repeating the old Jedi Code over and over to herself. She'd been taught, by his own masters, no doubt, that she wasn't supposed to be upset by death. Now, she desperately needed to grieve, to mourn her loss and felt that need was wrong. Fiercely, he held the girl closer, not sure who needed the comfort more.

Emotions rolling far to close to the surface to be safe, Luke did his best to help the girl. "Listen to me, Nerinika. Are you listening to me?" He felt her weak nod against his chest and he pulled even tighter. "It is okay to grieve. You have to mourn before you can move on."

She was slowly going limp in his arms and Luke relaxed his grip on her slightly to give her the chance to pull back. When she didn't, he continued stroking her hair. "But the code..."

Luke resisted his first urge, which was to say 'Is a lot of rubbish.' Instead, he said, "Is meant to guide only. It is not meant to be taken quite that literally. Yes, it says that, but it means you have to move past the pain, not ignore it. You have to feel the pain before you can understand it. You have to understand it before you can accept it and you have to accept it before you can move past it."

Neri was completely limp in the Jedi's arms so he supported her. She seemed to have expended every ounce of strength she had possessed in her grief. Luke noticed her head lay at an odd angle against her chest and he lifted her up some so she could ponder his words in comfort. For several long minutes, Neither moved. Neri was too wrapped up in thought to even try to summon enough energy to move beyond the now silent sobs that still shook her shoulders. Luke, on the other hand, was trying to understand his own feelings. He desperately needed to get his emotions under control before the anger he felt on this child's behalf took hold, or worse, before Neri noticed.

Luke again wondered how this child could bring forth such emotion in him. He felt the same pulling at his heart now that he'd felt in the throne room when Neri had fallen. This time it was not quite as sudden, but just as fierce. It was as if he hurt because she was hurting and the jedi had never experienced anything like this before. Unable to focus on himself, Luke shelved his thoughts for a later time and concentrated on Neri.

The girl was stirring slightly and Luke could feel her pain ease. Now that she had allowed herself to feel the emotions she had been putting off for so long, they were not so easily pushed away. Instead, Luke knew that they would linger for some time. Right now, however, Neri was pulling herself together. With the pain easing into a dull ache, Neri would now be able to deal with this on her own terms and truly move on.

Sitting up, Neri sniffled and wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "I'm sorry, Luke."

"For what?" Luke said, offering her a soft smile.

She grinned in relief and wiped at her eyes again. "Well, for getting snot on your shirt, for one."

The jedi looked down and shrugged. The black shirt showed wet splotches where her tears had soaked through. Luke winked at her and lifted it over his head, reveling a lighter colored, short sleeved shirt underneath. "I've had worse on my clothes. At least tears are easier to wash out than swamp mud."

Neri giggled, more from tension than humor but the sound was heartening anyway. Luke grinned in response, something he realized he didn't do near often enough, and threw the shirt at her. Neri caught it and threw it back. Luke dodged to one side and watched the shirt skid through the doorway and into the Council Chamber.

Paria, who had returned to the other room in an attempt to give the two some privacy, stepped into view holding the shirt. Not having been part of the conversation, she couldn't understand why Luke and Neri dissolved into helpless laughter at the sight of her unintentionally holding the garment at arms length.

* * *

Recovering somewhat, Neri led Paria and Puck through the upper levels while Luke took the opportunity to really examine the building. The crew had only barely started on the restoration, but already Luke could see through the changes. No, see wasn't really the right word, it was more like he could feel what was part of the temple and what was not. Almost as if the building itself wanted to be rid of the dark colors and pompous decor. Luke knew, in his heart, that was why the floor had crumbled. Whatever their expert had said about poor quality materials, Luke knew there was another reason. The black just didn't belong here 

Wandering toward the huge doors, Luke ran one hand down the enamel. Having grown up on Tatooine and then spent so many years on Coruscant, he understood the value of so much real wood in one location, in one object. He could only imagine what such a thing might look like or what could possibly have possessed the Jedi of old to spend so much money on something so simple as a door. For that matter, why would they use this type of door? A power door would have been much easier and more practical. It had taken both him and Neri to push these mammoth things open, to have to do such a thing on a daily basis was unthinkable. For a moment, he tried to picture Master Yoda entering this room and...

_... he was so nervous. What could the council possibly want him for? He didn't think he'd done anything wrong recently. Could it be something he'd done earlier? He didn't think so, they'd mostly found out about everything..._

_The huge doors slowly swung open under an unseen power revealing the twelve council members sitting in their usual places. The effect was quite impressive to visitors but he'd been able to sense the masters pull the door open with the force..._

Luke jerked suddenly back to reality. The vision, if that was what it was, left as quickly as it had come, but it had answered his question. The old jedi had used the force to open these doors. _"Size matters not."_ came unbidden to his mind, causing him to grin. Curiously, he stepped back and reached out with the force. The doors, large as they were, swung closed easily and settled in place with a soft thunk. Still grinning, Luke pushed them open again, to reveal five very surprised members of the clean-up crew instead of the twelve jedi he'd seen in his vision.

A bit sheepishly, Luke waved and said, "Sorry, I was just trying something."

"Well warn us next time, would you?" One of the workers, a heavily built Arthenian called. Another, this one a human woman, said,

"Yeah, this place is creepy enough without having stuff move all by itself."

"Sorry," Luke repeated. He heard someone mutter "Jedi!" under their breath and he decided to see what Neri was up to.

He found her and the two members of the Restoration Committee on the next level down. Puck was standing in the middle of the room taking notes while Neri led Paria around the room.

"...this was mostly just a waiting room, nothing terribly important but as long as we're working we might as well do it too. This sculpture thing has got to go, of course. And after you've fixed the paint and replaced the furniture, it should really have some plants. I don't know what happened to it, but there used to be an intercom between the waiting room up there and this one down here."

"We'll take care of it. Anything else?" Paria asked.

Neri shook her head. "No that should just about do it for these two levels. If I think of anything else, I'll let you know. Do you want me to come back and help you with the next level down before I go?"

Paria thought for a moment. "Either before you go or first thing tomorrow. If we have to have any supplies imported I want to know about it a good long time before we need them. I don't want to have any sit and wait time in this project."

Luke stepped forward. "Well, if you're done with Nerinika, I'd like to borrow her for a while."

"Not a problem, see you later Neri." Paria didn't look up form reading Puck's notes over his shoulder.

"Bye," Neri called, following Luke out of the room.

Luke wanted to waste no more time. He and Neri headed toward the lifts. They were going to take the lift as far down as it would go and then he was relying on her knowledge to lead the rest of the way down. "Neri, can you tell me about the council chambers? What was it like when you went there?"

"You mean what did it feel like?" At his nod, she continued. "Well, it was designed to be impressive, to make you feel like you had done something wrong, even if you didn't. Uncle Qui Gon told me once that was so the bureaucrats who came would show proper respect. It didn't work with most of the Jedi though. For the most part they could see through the special effects."

"Thank you, that is kind of what I thought. I had a vision while I was up there. I was waiting for the council to tell me why they had sent for me and the doors swung open and I saw the twelve Jedi of all different races there."

Neri raised and eyebrow. "I'm glad you got to see it, now you'll understand better when I tell you something is wrong."

Luke chuckled and the lift door opened. The two of them stepped out and Neri checked the level number. "This should be mostly class rooms."

"Looks more like offices to me."

"Figures." Neri started down the hall, this one a garish purple instead of a garish red. Her eyes were almost completely closed and Luke realized she was imagining the hall as it had once been. Her slow steps grew more confidant as she continued past the closed doors. Each was numbered and several still had the nameplates of the officials who had most recently occupied each space. "I can't figure out how this emperor managed to fill so much space. Nearly a million beings resided here permanently with a transient population of a million more. Surely there can't be that many officials to house in a monarchy."

Luke shrugged. He hadn't know this building when it was the imperial palace anymore than when it had been the Jedi Temple. He had no idea how so much space had been used. Perhaps Leia could have answered the question better. "The Emperor was nothing if not wasteful."

Neri chuckled sadly. She stopped and turned toward a bare wall. when she opened her eyes, she was standing only inches from the purple paint. "Uhhg, I never did care for purple." She stepped back a few inches and rapped on the wall. Luke heard a hollow echo and she moved several feet to her right and rapped again. This time Luke heard a dull thud. Moving back, Neri found the hollow spot again and rapped harder. To her surprise, a loud crack resounded and a split appeared in the wall. Luke shook his head in wonder.

"Like an infection..." He regarded the wall solemnly for a moment then said, "Step aside, I have an easier way."

He pulled the lightsabre from his belt, where it had almost been forgotten, and ignited it. He slid the blade into the wall and lifted it straight up, then slid it sideways, then down, then across to where he'd started. The acrid smell of burned plastic faded surprisingly quickly and was gone almost before Luke had caught the piece of wall and levitated it out of the way. He stepped aside to admire his work and Neri peeked into the darkened to space.

"You know," He said, "not being able to fill the space is probably why these levels were closed off. Palpatine couldn't use them and he couldn't destroy them, so he pretended they didn't exist."

Neri shrugged. "Luke, smell the air."

"I don't smell anything."

"Exactly!" Neri leaned into the space and took a deep breath. "This level has been closed off for at least twenty or thirty years and we already know the air circulation systems aren't functioning down here; why doesn't the air smell stale?" She looked around suspiciously. "It's like the building wants us to do all this, like it's fixing itself even as we work to restore it."

Now it was Luke's turn to raise an eyebrow at Neri. "The building wants?"

"Sure, why not. This place is a concentration of force energy. It has been for longer than anyone has kept records. This building has it's roots in the planet's surface, who knows what's down there or what's possible in such a situation?"

"Well I know what's not possible," Luke said and Neri readied herself for an argument.

"What's that?" she challenged.

Luke smiled at her and she softened her stance. "Finding out what's down there with out lights and some tools. Come on, we need supplies." He turned away and started for the lifts. Neri had to run to catch up before the lift doors closed.


End file.
